Merry With a Scrooge (The Love Beach Holiday Collection)

3. Vail

Vail

What the fuck is Delaney Sanderson doing here?

Quade is at their family’s estate in Love Beach. It’s where their family gathers every summer. It’s where Delaney should be.

Except she’s here.

In New York.

Witnessing this bullshit.

Pushing her from my mind—although that’s always been difficult—I focus back on my car and the cop beside me.

“I cannot begin to explain or understand what she’s talking about. All I know is I was working when she yelled from my office doorway she quit.” I shrug. “I’m sure that’s all on the security tape.”

“It is,” Chad adds. “As is the moment she threw the stapler across the room where it hit Mr. Kavanah in the forehead.”

“Right.” The officer’s gaze strays to the line of cruisers before coming back. “Do you want to press charges?”

“Fuck yes! I might have let the stapler thing go but after this”—I point at my once pristine car—“I want her charged with everything.”

“Okay. You’ll need to come to the station to make a formal statement.” He glances behind him. “You too, Ms…”

“I can do that but not until later tonight,” I say, bringing his attention back to me.

“That’s fine. We’ll take her in, charge her and log the security footage as evidence. She’ll lawyer up?—”

“I’ll have my lawyer at the station within the hour.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“I think it is. I’d like to get a restraining order in place before she’s released which I assume will be sooner than later.”

The officer nods and Chad moves closer to me.

“I’ll call Lance.”

I nod. My eyes now locked on Delaney.

What the fuck is she doing here?

She must feel my gaze because she turns slightly, and when our eyes connect, she doesn’t back down. She stares at me with a look that I can only take as a challenge.

What the hell she’s challenging me to, is beyond me, but I have other shit to deal with. This isn’t the way I wanted to start my week. Fuck, it isn’t the way I want to start any week. Except it seems to be the way of things since last year.

“Chad, make sure the police have everything they need before they leave. I’ll be in my office.” At his nod, I focus back on Delaney. “Ms. Sanderson. Shall we?”

Her gaze assesses me shrewdly, and before she capitulates, she says, “It’s Bennett.”

With those words, she spins on her heel and heads for the elevator. One last look at my car has my gut cramping and hands fisting.

“Call when it’s all sorted, Chad.”

“Will do, boss.”

I don’t bother acknowledging the cops. I need to get out of here before I do something stupid, something I’ll regret, like walk over to where they’ve got that woman and punch the window she’s attempting to break with her feet.

It’s not the best way to deal with my anger and normally I’m good at controlling my emotions. Fuck, according to Felicity I’m emotionless.

And maybe I am with her. I’m nothing if not honest, and I have to admit my initial attraction to her wore off quick. Except by then I was attached to the child growing in her belly.

I knew the baby wasn’t mine from the moment she told me she was pregnant and tried to pass it off as mine. But it didn’t stop me from forming and emotional connection with the child.

I should have worked out all I was to Felicity was a cash-cow.

When I reach the elevator, I’m snapped from my thoughts but the sight of Delaney holding the doors open, waiting for me to join her inside. The floor button below mine is lit and I glance at her.

“Why did you push that one? You know our offices are on the top floor.”

“I’ve got an appointment with HR in four minutes.” Her gaze once again holds a hint of challenge, as if she’s daring me to argue with her.

“What the hell for?” Obviously, I can’t resist her unspoken taunt.

“To complete my employment paperwork and orientation.”

“Your what?”

“You heard me.” Her chin is high, her eyes blazing with the threat of confrontation and I’ve never wanted this woman more than I do in this moment.

And I’ve wanted her a lot.

From the moment I realized she wasn’t a little girl anymore.

From the moment I looked at her and saw my whole future laid out in front of me.

From the moment I discovered Delaney Sanderson wasn’t just my best friend’s baby sister to me.

Seven years I’ve hidden my feelings for the woman in front of me. First because she was barely eighteen when all those revelations hit me, second, aforementioned best friend is her older brother, third, I’m ten years her senior.

Looking at her now I can’t remember why ten years seemed such a big gap. Or how I’ve managed to not fall at her feet and beg her to give me a chance.

Avoidance.

Head in sand tactics.

Hiding behind another woman.

Getting engaged to that other woman.

Taking on a child who isn’t mine.

I’ve employed all of them over the years.

And now she’s here, standing in my office building claiming she has a job with my company.

This isn’t going to end well. I know that better than I know I took a stapler to the head, and someone fucked up my car this morning.

Oh fuck. No!

“What job?” I croak because my throat is closing with panic. I don’t need her to speak, I know what she’s going to say but I’m obviously a masochist.

“Executive assistant.”

I can’t speak at all now. My throat is clenched as tight as my gut. And as I open my mouth in the hope of getting my body to work correctly, the doors open and she steps out.

Reaching back, she presses the button for my floor, and glances over her shoulder, a knowing smirk on her face. “See you soon boss.”

I’m left with my mouth hanging open and the elevator doors closing in my face.

My stomach drops as the car rises along with one word.

“Fuck!”

Delaney Sanderson is going to be working under me.

No.

Not under me.

Never under me.

For me.

She’ll be working for me.

This cannot happen. Repeatedly stabbing the button for my floor even as the doors open, I rush through the gap as soon as I can fit.

I’m not ashamed to admit I run to my office and grab my phone before I’ve even rounded the desk.

When Dennis answers I bark, “No!” before he even has a chance to talk.

“Um… Boss?”

“No. She cannot be my assistant.”

“She’s the most qualified person for the job and Deirdre hired her through our intern program.”

“What? She has not interned with us!” I’d know. Wouldn’t I?

“Yes. She has. Out in the California office. The last two years she’s done multiple stints out there.”

Dennis’s explanation has my stomach once again cramping.

Mrs. Jerome ran the company’s intern program. She oversaw everything from the applications to the positions to the job offers when she saw someone with the talent to work at QVE full time.

“Does Quade know?” I have to believe my friend would have told me if he did.

“No. But Easton has worked with her on a number of projects over the years and I believe he’s aware of her permanent employment in the New York office.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Scrubbing a hand down my face I try to calm the fuck down. “Sorry. It’s been a morning.”

“I know.”

“Okay, when am I supposed to be meeting with her?” I scramble for my calendar, but when I open it on my computer I see it’s been wiped clean. “Holy fuck.”

“What?”

“I think that bitch didn’t just beam me with a stapler and trash my car.”

“What else?”

“My calendar is blank.” I frantically click back month after month. “There isn’t one appointment on it.”

“Let me call IT. I’m sure they can pull a backup of it from this morning, or whenever it was it was wiped.”

Chad appears in my doorway. “No. I’ll get Chad on it. You just deal with Ms. Sanderson.”

“It’s Bennett. She goes by Laney Bennett.”

There’s something in his voice that piques my interest but with the discovery of more destruction at the hands of… fuck , I don’t even know the woman’s name.

Closing my eyes, I lower my chin. “I’ll make time whenever you bring her up here.”

“I’ll see if she’s able to start work right away.”

Before I can protest, Dennis hangs up.

Fuck.

How the hell am I supposed to keep my defenses up against Delaney Sanderson now?